Life was not going as planned.

I graduated with my master’s degree in May last year, and I had planned on getting a full-time job as soon as I was finished. As I neared my final day of classes, I began looking for jobs and submitting applications, but nothing was panning out. After graduation, weeks and months passed by. Holidays and special events came and went, and I still did not have a job. I became depressed and confused as to why I couldn’t find a good job. Thankfully, after ten very long months of waiting and hoping, I finally started in a full-time job, and as I look back, I can see that God moved me out of my old position and into my new one at just the perfect time.

However, not every situation in my life has turned out quite like this. There have many times where I wished and hoped and prayed for something to happen for weeks, months, years. I was absolutely convinced that everything would work out the way I had planned and dreamed. But it never did. My prayers appeared unanswered. My dreams were unfulfilled. And I was left in a perpetual state of longing, wondering what in the world God was doing in my life.

Over the years, I’ve had to learn embrace the life I’ve been given, which is exactly what Elizabeth Woodson’s new book is all about.